Straight ahead, you’ll spot St Werburgh's Church by its striking square Gothic tower with turrets perched on each corner, standing just to the right of the main church building with its sweeping arched windows-look past the traffic lights and over the greenery and you can’t miss it!
Imagine you’re standing on Friargate, as car tyres swish past and pigeons flutter through the branches-there’s St Werburgh’s, watching over Derby since the days when people got around by horse and cart. You might find your gaze drawn to its magnificent tower-it’s a proud survivor from the early 1600s, built while Shakespeare was still writing his plays! If those ancient stones could speak, what stories they’d tell. Just beyond, the main body of the church stretches out, rebuilt in dramatic Gothic Revival style back in the late 1800s, thanks to Sir Arthur Blomfield and lots of stone from Coxbench quarry. The church looks as if plucked from a medieval storybook, but its history’s even juicier!
Picture this: In 1735, on a quietly nervous morning, Samuel Johnson-later to become Dr Johnson, the famous dictionary man-stood inside this very church, probably fidgeting with his coat as he waited for his bride, Elizabeth Porter. Now, the town whispers said Elizabeth was quite a bit older than Samuel, and neither family was terribly happy about their match. No pressure! Still, they faced their doubts together and exchanged vows that would last until her death-starting their marriage right here, inside St Werburgh’s. If you listen closely, you might still catch faint echoes of wedding bells and their hurried footsteps on ancient flagstones.
You might notice the church is really two buildings in one: the imposing stone tower and its old chancel (the area around the altar) are separate from the main church-linked only on the outside, with no way through within. Today, the tower and chancel are under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. If you fancy a peek inside, you’d need to pop to Derby Museum down the street to borrow the key-like a real-life adventurer on a quest for secrets of the past!
For a time, the church itself closed up shop, gathering dust after 1984, when its doors shut to parishioners. But history in Derby doesn’t take a nap forever; inside, the building found new lives as an indoor market, and then a Chinese restaurant-imagine shopping for trinkets or getting your takeout under soaring stained-glass windows! Seven years of silence later, St Werburgh’s was finally reawakened as a church in 2017, ringing out with lively contemporary music every Sunday. You hear modern song, laughter, and a fresh sense of community pouring out those grand doors.
Don’t just glance at the outside, though. Inside the chancel, you’d find a royal coat of arms-Queen Anne’s, no less-presiding over the reredos, with carved panels featuring the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. If you wander in, check out the intricate wrought iron font cover, the handiwork of Robert Bakewell, and a centuries-old memorial by sculptor Francis Leggatt Chantrey-evidence that this church has never stopped marking important moments in Derby’s life.
Of course, there’s a dash of solemnity here as well. On the wall is a powerful bronze war memorial-Christ with arms outstretched, keeping watch over forty-seven local men who went off to fight in World War I but never returned. Their names, and the phrase “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” serve as a moving reminder of Derby’s sacrifices and hopes.
Now if you like organ music, St Werburgh’s has a story with a twist. Back in its heyday, the church boasted a splendid organ, with a history of celebrated organists, their fingers flying along the keys. Organ music thundered, echoing around the high arches-until, decades later, the instrument was sold off and… well, never actually used again at its new home.
So, as you stand before St Werburgh’s today, surrounded by swaying trees and drifting clouds, remember: you’re facing a place where love, music, laughter, and even the odd local market stall have taken shelter for centuries. If these stones could sigh, I imagine they’d say, “Every day in Derby brings a new beginning.”
